1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ejector mechanism for a card bus connector, and particularly to an ejector mechanism having a connecting structure provided between a reciprocally mounted push-rod and a pivotably mounted ejector lever of a card bus connector.
2. The Prior Art
A card bus connector is usually equipped with an ejector mechanism for ejecting an inserted card. As shown in FIGS. 1A to 2, a conventional card bus connector 2 mounted on a printed circuit board 3 includes a housing 20, a guiding frame 21 for guiding a card (not shown) into/out of the connector 2, an ejector mechanism, an upper shielding member 30 attached to a top face of the housing 20, and a lower shielding member 40 attached to a bottom face of the housing 20. The upper shielding member 30 forms eight grounding tabs 32 for engaging with eight grounding contacts on the card inserted into the connector 2. The ejector mechanism consists of a push-rod 22 reciprocally mounted on a right arm of the frame 21 and having a distal end 222 and a proximal end 221 formed as a push-button for receiving a push force to activate the ejector mechanism, an ejector lever 23 pivotably mounted on the lower shielding member 40 and having a force-receiving end 232 horizontally extending through a slit 2221 defined in the distal end 222 of the push-rod 22, and an ejector plate 24 drivably connected with the ejector lever 23, whereby when the ejector lever 23 is pivoted by pushing the push-button 221 toward the housing 20, the ejector plate 24 moves in a direction away from the housing 20 to eject an inserted card.
Particularly referring to FIG. 2, the ejector mechanism of the conventional card connector 2 has the following disadvantages concerning the connecting portion between the push-rod 22 and the ejector lever 23.
To securely connect the ejector lever 23 and the push-rod 22 for avoiding a separation thereof after an extended period of use of the connector 2, the slit 2221 defined in the distal end 222 of the push-rod 22 should have a dimension only slightly larger than that of the force-receiving end 232 of the push-rod 23, whereby great care must be taken during assembly of the push-rod 22 to the ejector lever 23(resulting in low assembly efficiency.
Furthermore, as the ejector lever 23 is mounted on the lower shielding member 40, the force-receiving end 232 thereof is extended slightly above the PCB. In this situation, a bottom edge 224 of the distal end 222 of the push-rod 22 must extend downward very close to the PCB 3 in order to provide a sufficient area to form the slit 2221 large enough to receive the force-receiving end 232 of the ejector lever 23. Since the bottom edge 224 of the distal end 222 of the push-rod 22 is very close to the PCB, a standoff must be provided on the bottom of the connector 2 to space it from the PCB 3; otherwise, the bottom edge 224 of the distal end 222 of the push-rod 22 will scratch the circuit (not shown) on the PCB 3 and cause breakage thereof after the push-rod 22 has been reciprocally moved. However, a standoff provided to space the connector 2 from the PCB 3 will increase the occupied space of the connector 2, which is unfavorable in view of the compact design of computer components.
Taiwan Patent Application No. 84210016 discloses a card bus connector wherein the distal end of the push-rod defines a notch in a middle portion thereof, and the force-receiving end of the ejector lever is bent upward to be retentively received in the notch. Although such a design does not scratch the PCB since the bottom edge is formed at a higher position, the distal end of the push-rod and the force-receiving end of the ejector lever still cannot be easily connected.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,421,737, 5,456,610, 5,324,204 and 5,443,395 disclose card connectors having ejector mechanisms with push-rods connected to ejector levers. Although these patents are not particularly related card bus connectors, they form the background art for the present invention.
Hence, an improved ejector mechanism for a card bus connector is needed to eliminate the above mentioned defects of current card bus connectors.